The term oil shale generally refers to any sedimentary rock that contains solid bituminous materials (called kerogen) that are released as petroleum-like liquids when the rock is heated in the chemical process of pyrolysis. Oil shale was formed millions of years ago by deposition of silt and organic debris on lake beds and sea bottoms. Over long periods of time, heat and pressure transformed the materials into oil shale in a process similar to the process that forms oil; however, the heat and pressure were not as great. Oil shale generally contains enough oil that it will burn without any additional processing.

While oil shale is found in many places worldwide, by far the largest deposits in the world are found in the United States in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of the oil resource in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.2 to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all resources in place are recoverable; however, even a moderate estimate of 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from oil shale in the Green River Formation is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.

Aruvian Research presents an analysis of the US oil shales market. Aruvian’s research report Analyzing the US Oil Shale Market analyzes the basics of oil shales and the US oil shale industry.

The report starts by explaining the basics about oil shales, what are oil shales, the geology of oil shales, formation of oil shales, and of course, the applications of oil shales. The advantages and disadvantages of oil are also discussed in the first section, along with the projected scale of oil shale development.

Moving on, we analyze the US oil shale industry, wherein the Green River Formation and the Devonian Shales from the United States have been analyzed in depth.

We also explore the factors driving growth in the US oil shales industry such as the increase in oil prices, energy security, and economic benefits, amongst others. Challenges to the growth of the US oil shale market is also discussed in details. Issues such as economics of oil shales, supply and disposition factors, have been looked into in this section.

No report will be complete without an analysis of the oil shale extraction technologies and we explore the technological side of this industry, wherein we explain the processes of oil shale retorting, conventional refining, in-situ retorting, underground mining, synthetic fuel production, etc.

The environmental impact of oil shales and the economics of oil shales are further discussed in the report.

A clear differentiating and unique factor offered in Aruvian’s report is a comprehensive case study that compares the US oil shales to the tar sands of Alberta, which equips the user with a more real time scenario of the industry.

We sum up with an analysis of the leading industry players such as American Shale Oil, Chevron Shale Oil Company, Oil Shale Exploration Company, and many others.